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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7352202" data-attributes="member: 42582">Well, terms like &quot;little&quot; or &quot;modest&quot; aren't simply synonyms or euphemisms for &quot;none&quot;.&nbsp;[MENTION=29398]Lanefan[/MENTION] seems to think that it is an important aspect of player agency that the players provide colour (what their PCs say, wear, etc). I personally don't agree, as a player can do this in the most egregious railroad imaginable.Lanefan likewise seems to think that it is an important aspect of player agency that the players can declare actions for their PCs (&quot;I move from A to B&quot;; &quot;I attack the orc&quot;; &quot;I look for the map&quot;). I regard this as only very modest agency: except in the most dysfunctional game players have enjoy this sort of agency in any RPG. What is significant, in my view, is what happens in the resolution of these action declarations. If the fiction that will be encountered at B, that will result from the attempt to search the map, and even that will result from attacking the orc (see [MENTION=29398]Lanefan[/MENTION]'s example upthread of the fiction that results from charming the harlot) are all authored by the GM on the basis of unrevealed notes and ideas about the setting, then the player is exercising very little agency - all s/he is doing is triggering the GM to narrate and perhaps first to make up some fiction.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7352202, member: 42582"] Well, terms like "little" or "modest" aren't simply synonyms or euphemisms for "none". [MENTION=29398]Lanefan[/MENTION] seems to think that it is an important aspect of player agency that the players provide colour (what their PCs say, wear, etc). I personally don't agree, as a player can do this in the most egregious railroad imaginable. Lanefan likewise seems to think that it is an important aspect of player agency that the players can declare actions for their PCs ("I move from A to B"; "I attack the orc"; "I look for the map"). I regard this as only very modest agency: except in the most dysfunctional game players have enjoy this sort of agency in any RPG. What is significant, in my view, is [I]what happens in the resolution of these action declarations[/I]. If the fiction that will be encountered at B, that will result from the attempt to search the map, and even that will result from attacking the orc (see [MENTION=29398]Lanefan[/MENTION]'s example upthread of the fiction that results from charming the harlot) are all authored by the GM on the basis of unrevealed notes and ideas about the setting, then the player is exercising very little agency - all s/he is doing is triggering the GM to narrate and perhaps first to make up some fiction. [/QUOTE]

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